The unusually warm April weather southeast Michigan has been experiencing this month produced five new earliest sightings records for the Greater Washtenaw
County Butterfly Survey on Saturday April 22 alone. The species with new record early sightings were Juvenal's Duskywing (Erynnis juvenalis) [4/23 old], Eastern-tailed
Blue (Everes comyntas) [5/1 old], Wild Indigo Duskywing (Erynnis baptisiae) [5/3 old], Orange Sulphur (Colias eurytheme) [4/23 old], and Monarch (Danaus plexippus)
[5/6 old]. Each of these species was found at Petersburg State Game Area in western Monroe County.
Besides the record-breakers, five additional butterfly species were flying there on Saturday--Cabbage White (Pieris rapae), Spring Azure (Celastrina ladon), Clouded Sulphur (Colias philodice), Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta), and American Painted Lady (Vanessa virginiensis). It was a pretty decent mid April butterflying day.
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John Swales, Roger
Wykes, and Roger Kuhlman led a Washtenaw Audubon Society trip to
Matthaei Botanical Gardens just outside of Ann Arbor on Sunday morning July
16 to look for butterflies. Despite the very warm and muggy weather the
butterfly walk was a great success and in little more than two hours, we
found a total of 25 butterfly species.
The walk started in the outdoor Gateway gardens where we lucky to see a Red Admiral nectaring on Purple Coneflowers. Other butterflies found in the outdoor gardens included Monarch, Silver-spotted Skipper, Cabbage White, and a Great Spangled Fritillary flitting through the scene. Next we took the trail that winds along Flemming Creek. Almost immediately we saw three or four gorgeous, newly emerged male Red-spotted Purples on the trail. Most likely these Red-spotted Purples were males probing wet spots of trail in search of salts.
After crossing the bridge over Flemming Creek we saw the highlight of the
day a single Duke's Skipper. This butterfly is a Michigan state-threatened rare species
found mainly in southeast Michigan where its specialized habitat is found. For the past
several years this butterfly has been a rare breeder at the Botanical Gardens that feeds
on Carex lacustris.
Besides the Duke's Skipper other highlights of the trip were several Banded Hairstreaks engaged in swirling 'aggressive' flights, the uncommon Gray Comma, good views of a Great Spangled Fritillary nectaring on Monarda and a very black Dun Skipper netted and then passed around in a bottle for better viewing. After everyone had seen the butterfly I took it out of the bottle and stayed for awhile on my finger. The last butterfly of the day was a female Black Swallowtail. It was mentioned that the female Black Swallowtail can easily be confused with Spicebush Swallowtail but the two can be distinguished reliably but viewing the median band of spots on the underside hindwing of the butterfly. Spicebush always has a missing spot in this band while the female Black Swallowtail has a complete band and usually one additional spot inside the band.
Full listing of butterflies seen: Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele) Red-spotted Purple (Limenitis arthemis astyanax) Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus) Cabbage White (Pieris rapae) Monarch (Danaus plexippus) Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos) Duke's Skipper (Euphyes dukesi) Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) Little Wood Satyr (Megisto cymela) Banded Hairstreak (Satyrium calanus) Summer Azure (Celastrina neglecta) Appalachian Eyed Brown (Satyrodes Appalachia) Northern Pearly Eye (Enodia anthedon) Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilio troilus) Delaware Skipper (Anatrytone logan) Common Wood Nymph (Cercyonis pegala) Dun Skipper (Euphyes vestries) Black Dash (Euphyes conspicua) Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma) Gray Comma (Polygonia progne) Orange Sulphur (Colias eurytheme) Northern Broken Dash (Wallengrenia egeremet) Wild Indigo Duskywing (Erynnis baptisiae) Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes)
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